Beijer Alma Q1 2025, Summary

Beijer Alma, reported a strong first quarter for 2025, setting a positive tone for the new CEO, Jonny Alvarsson. The company's performance was driven by a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions.

The Nordic region, a key market for Beijer Alma, delivered robust growth, fueled by both organic and acquired businesses. Liquiforce, the company's largest segment, experienced a 4% organic increase in order bookings and an 8% rise in net revenue, reaching nearly 2 billion SEK. The adjusted operating profit stood at 282 million SEK, with a stable operating margin compared to the previous year.

While Lesjöfors' chassis springs division saw a slight decline in sales, the margin improved due to favorable market conditions. The industry segment, encompassing Asia, the Nordics, and the US, contributed to the overall growth, with the exception of Alcomex in Holland, which faced challenges in the door springs market due to the sluggish construction sector in Europe.

Beijer Tech, Beijer Alma's other business area, demonstrated remarkable performance, with a 50% increase in order bookings and a 70% surge in net revenue. All three of Beijer Tech's business units experienced impressive growth, primarily driven by customers in the Nordic region, while some companies also exported globally.

The company's financials reflected the strong operational performance, with an increase in adjusted operating profit, EBITA, and operating margin of 14.4%. The adjusted EBIT margin also improved slightly compared to the previous year, while cash flow and profit per share saw positive gains.

Bayer Alma continued its acquisition strategy, acquiring one company in India and two smaller acquisitions in Finland. The company's acquisition history since 2018 positions it as a serial acquirer, and the CEO expressed the possibility of further international acquisitions within the Beijer Tech area.

Looking ahead, Jonny Alvarsson emphasized the focus on organic growth and margin improvements for Lesjöfors, while Beijer Tech will prioritize both organic growth and acquisitions. The CEO set ambitious targets, aiming to restore Lesjöfors' margins to around 20% and potentially increasing Beijer Tech's margins by 3-4 percentage points over time, bringing them in line with similar groups in the stock market.


This summary was written by our AI Analyst Tim! If you find something that does not seem right let us know and we will correct him

Thank you. Welcome to this webcast for the first quarter in 2025. Obeyer Alma myself I've been in position about less than one month, but I've been with the company on the board for a number of years. The picture you see now on the first page is actually from one of our latest acquisitions, Vemas. And they are their customer base is the infrastructure, especially in Sweden. I guess most of you know who we are. We are listed since many years and personally I regard us as a serial acquirer. Even though market may not have been anticipated the company that way. And if we look at the figures, the market situation, as everyone knows, is very unstable and things happening from day to day. But in our case, the first quarter was a good quarter. If we look at the different regions, the Nordic region in general delivered good growth, combination of organic and acquired growth. And liquor Fosh that's working a lot with springs are working worldwide and have a mixed demand, but actually has some organic growth in sales and order bookings. Chassis springs, who is a separate business within Liquor Forge, was slightly lower than last year, but a little bit higher margin. And chassis springs are springs to used cars. So that actually where you replace the old or the new. The factory managed springs with replacements. In the industry segment. Asia, Nordics and US Industrial contributed to growth. We have one acquisition we did a few years ago, Alcomx in Holland. And there we have some problems with their market of door springs because they are connected to the to the construction market. And that is, as everyone knows, on a low level in Europe. We are working on ways to solve the problem, but still we are negatively affected by this situation. Baytech can see an overall stable demand, but it varies with the markets. But Baytech are mainly working in Norway, Sweden and Finland, and partly in Denmark. But we had a very nice organic growth and also as I mentioned, acquisitions. Liquiforce only acquired one company in the quarter and that will be in service from our case from the 1st of April. So it has not affected the first quarter, but it's an interesting investment in India, which is a growing market for the future. So the order bookings increased with 9%. Now we should remember that Eastern was in last year in the first quarter and it comes in the second quarter this year. So we had an organic increase of 4% and the net revenue with 8% to almost 2 billion Swedish crowns. And the adjusted operating profit was 282 million Swedish crowns. And adjustment was related to the cost of the former MD when he left the company, we had an operating margin that was on the same level as last year. As you can see that liquor force is a major part of Bayer alma today with 68%. What we have seen in in the past years is that the operating profit margin has been very stable. But as I see it now we have some opportunities for the future to increase this MAR and Liquiforce it was also order bookings increased organically as well as in revenue and industry. Who is an area where we have been growing for the last years increased by 7% and chassis springs decreased by 5%. But that is every year is a little bit different depending on how tough the winter or so that means how much cars are affected by the hard roads and those things. So it's. It's. But it's minor change. And the margin was actually a little bit higher for Shasta Springs this first quarter. Baytech we had also very nice figures of increasement of the bookings of 50% and net revenue was 70%. And here you can really see nice growth for all the three business units we have. So mainly they are the main business here for Baytech are customers in the Nordic. But if some few of the companies are also exporting worldwide from Baytech. So financials we had an increase in adjusted operating profit EBITDA and the EBITDA margin was 14.4% same as last quarter last year. And adjusted EBIT margin was slightly higher than than last year. So cash flow was more positive than than last year. The profit increased. That means also that we had a bit better profit per per share than last year. Net depth increased also a bit depending on acquisitions. But we still have a good room for acquisitions in our balance sheet. And we are now on a net death to adjusted EBITDA of 2 times earnings per share increased with 6% for the period acquisitions. As we mentioned earlier, we acquired one company in India but it will be closing or transaction will be the 1st of April. And generally I think that now we have fully time of consolidation and in looking for increased profit margin. BTEC, this is UPS Udeman in Finland. It was on small acquisition and will be connected to OPH in Finland. We have when they have contributed the first month and Svemas was acquired in beginning of March has had a good contribution during the month to our group. And here you can see the acquisitions we've done over the years since 2018. And I think we should see BTECH as a serial acquirer or compounder some people say. And we have today in two business areas. I should not be surprised if it's in the future. Will be more business with more acquisitions and also general more international acquisitions in. In. In the Bayer tech area. So, so, so it's. I think this is a nice group and I. I used once upon a time to be the MD of Indotrade for many years and I think the group has a potential to have a performance in the future like Indo 3 and other serial acquirers. But we will always be cautious with what we acquire and look at profitable business and also with the low risk on the demand side. By this short presentation I will open up for questions and answers. So please go ahead. To ask a question, please dial on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial 6 on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Carl Noren from Seb. Please go ahead. Yes, hello and good morning. Jonne, A couple of questions from my side. Maybe if we start like overall on a strategic planning here, it sounds a little bit like we should expect maybe more focus on organic growth and organic margin improvements in Liquiforce while Bayer take the focus on growing both organic and through acquisitions. Is that how we should read it here in the near term? That's a good conclusion, yes. But of course if there shows up interesting cases in Liquiforge we should acquire there as well. But basically that's the trend we are looking at in the future. Nearest future. Yeah. That's good. And then you some chassis springs here, I mean slightly down in the quarter compared to a tough comparison. I'm just wondering a little bit on the margin improvement there you said you had in the quarter, what is really the driver behind that now it's minor and it's probably a mix depending on markets and customers and those things. So I don't see it as a trend yet. Okay. Okay. And overall the chassis season, so to say, I mean Q2 is usually quite high season as well. Do you see this? Is Q2 similar demand trends as in Q1 or is it too early to say? It's too early to say. Good. And then another one on Alcomex where you stated in the report that you see some effects on the margins in the latter part of the quarter. I mean should we already expect to see some impact of better margins in AlchemyX in Q2 and then a gradual improvement throughout the year, you think? Yeah, I think we have some pro risk going on now, so improve the situation but we still have some cost reductions to do in the company, so. But on an operational level I think we can expect a positive trend, but we Will have some structural changes on the cost level still in second quarter. Okay, but will you take that as a. Was it an adjustment or a one off or. That will probably be a one off, yes. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So slightly more to do there. That's clear. And then there's a final one on the Easter impact. I mean you mentioned that it could have been a little bit positive impact there. Do you have any. Anything more to say regarding that? No, we're hearing some mixed. Mixed from different companies here regarding the history. There's more working. It was a slightly positive. Yeah, it says more working days. So. So I mean normally all over the years I experienced where eastern can affect. There's a few more working days in March this year compared to last year. Then how it will end after second quarter, we don't know yet. That's too early. Yeah, yeah. Oh that's good. And that's all for me. Thank you for taking your questions and have a good day. The next question comes from Carl Korsheddin from Carnegie. Please go ahead. Yes, good morning Jonny. Just a couple of questions from my side here. I noticed that this is the first quarter in quite a while that you didn't mention Europe as a region. I guess underperforming. Does that mean that you are now, I mean fairly satisfied with the European business? If you perhaps exclude Alchemax, just to get a sense of how underlying Europe is developing while fairly satisfied. That's a good expression. Yes, but I think still there are more, more to do. But yes, we have, we have made some changes in. In like in Germany. So we are or less depending on the German market. But there are things to do. And you mentioned also that general, I guess industrial demand in the US was quite strong in the quarter. Do you think that could in any way be impacted by any sort of pre buying effects here or are you feeling that, I mean demand there is holding up quite well overall. Well, it is hard. I mean what we are selling in US is 295% produced in US where the US market will go. I guess you have to ask a person in US about with the President of the United States. So it's impossible to make any forecast for that. Yeah, I see. It would be very helpful if I mean did you see any sort of shift here in the first part here of Q2 or any change in customer behavior or does it look to date quite similar as in Q1 or with. With information I have today? It looks similar, yes. But I mean it can be changed from day to day, week to week. But I mean we have a pretty wide customer base. So it's more connected to the general market I think for industry in us and specific companies. Got it. And just on this fire there you mentioned on. It would be interesting to hear a little bit more on that and if you would expect to see any further negative P L effects from that in the upcoming quarters or if that sort of has been handled now already. We have. It's a small unit and it's in Finland and we have a full insurance coverage for it. And we have not decided how to do next step here we are supporting, I think 60, 70% of the products from other companies within the group and we are probably missing a little bit part. But we are discussing what's the next step here. I don't expect any more than marginal effect maybe in the coming quarter. Understood, thank you very much. That was all my questions. The next question comes from Johan Dahl from Dansky Bank. Please go ahead. Yes, good morning everyone. And good morning Jonne. Just sort of a strategic sort of question. Did you talk in the report about, you know, focusing on margins in L'Equiphos? I just wanted to sort of hear your view and so you know, also perhaps the board's view on where you see that potential in L'Or 4. What do you think sort of what is the untapped potential in Leckforsche and the sort of industrial springs franchise which you've built over the last couple of years? And how do you think you can achieve those margin improvements? Is it level of integration or sort of level of cost synergy takeout that you see as potential? And secondly also if you look on the assets in Liquiforce today, should we expect also possibly some sort of portfolio review where some assets may not fit that well into sort of a margin improvement profile today? Liquefosh is a Group where 50% of the sales are from brands not named lihefors. We have 19 different brands. Liquor Forge is very much a Nordic brand but now in Europe and US it's quite different brands. So I think we should really look for a decent, more decentralized organization and see that we put a pressure on the individual MDs for different small businesses. There could be some cost cutting also in some areas where the costs have been built up during the last years and eventually could be some spin off also. But that should be just a minor thing. I think the potential are in improving the existing business. And as we talked about earlier, we have Alcomx who is still a problem and when we solve that it will be have a good effect on the the group level and we have maybe one or two other companies also that we are working with now. Gotcha. How big of a Delta is Alcomex in your mind? How much now? How much of a. How much, how much. How much loss making was it? For example, looking at last year, you know. No, the first quarter was a few million. Say again? Sorry, I didn't hear a few million during the first quarter. Gotcha. Gotcha. A few million. A few million. I didn't say maybe three, four million. Something. Gotcha. Very clear. Thanks so much. If you wish to ask a question, please dial key five on your telephone keypad. More phone questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speaker for any written questions or closing comments. Okay, so far I haven't seen any written questions so I guess I can just say final words. My aim is to start a job, as I said earlier, to improve the margin in the group. And that goes for both business areas or for both Baytech and for. I think a reasonable goal for Lischeforce is to come back to the 20% where, where they were a few years ago and I can see the activities that is needed to do that. We, we have it on the map and for Baytech it will be also a challenge. But I think if you compare to similar groups on the stock market, I think we could increase the margin with 3, 4 present units over some time also in Bay Tech. And by that I want to say thank you and I guess we will see each other or hear each other in July next time. Bye.

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